Chap­ter 7 unfolds with Frank arriv­ing at Super­cuts well past clos­ing hours, deter­mined to speak with Vicky despite know­ing the salon has already shut for the day. His Jeep is run­ning on fumes, reflect­ing the exhaus­tion and anx­i­ety that have been build­ing inside him. As he parks near the strip mall, he notices a group of kids skate­board­ing out­side, their care­free laugh­ter form­ing a stark con­trast to the urgency pound­ing in his chest. He strides toward the salon and raps insis­tent­ly on the locked glass door, hop­ing Vicky will answer. Ini­tial­ly, she ignores him, unwill­ing to break the rules for an after-hours vis­i­tor. She ges­tures for him to return in the morn­ing when the shop reopens, but Frank refus­es to leave. His des­per­a­tion leaks into his voice as he insists that it’s about Mag­gie, that there is some­thing she needs to hear. It’s only when he men­tions that he has nowhere else to go that she paus­es, con­sid­er­ing whether to let him inside.

As the skate­board­ers glance over curi­ous­ly, Frank reas­sures them that there is no need for police involve­ment, clar­i­fy­ing that his sis­ter and Abi­gail are safe and stay­ing at a hotel for the night. He retrieves a hard dri­ve from his pock­et and holds it up for Vicky to see, promis­ing that its con­tents will explain every­thing. This piques her curios­i­ty, soft­en­ing her ini­tial resis­tance. With an air of hes­i­ta­tion, she unlocks the door and steps aside, allow­ing Frank to enter before secur­ing the salon behind them. The shop is dim­ly lit, its famil­iar scent of hair prod­ucts and clean­ing solu­tions fill­ing the air. Frank moves toward the vin­tage com­put­er at the back of the room, quick­ly set­ting up the hard dri­ve as Vicky watch­es cau­tious­ly. The com­put­er is slow, its out­dat­ed sys­tem lag­ging as he loads the files. When the screen final­ly responds, a list of cryp­tic names appears, lead­ing them to a fold­er filled with audio record­ings. Frank clicks on the first file, and the speak­ers crack­le to life, reveal­ing a con­ver­sa­tion between Aidan, Mag­gie, and oth­ers about a struc­tured rela­tion­ship plan.

At first, the con­ver­sa­tion seems casu­al, but as the record­ing pro­gress­es, a trou­bling under­tone emerges. Vicky’s brows fur­row as she process­es what she’s hear­ing, the dis­cus­sion hint­ing at some­thing more cal­cu­lat­ed and hid­den than she had expect­ed. As they con­tin­ue lis­ten­ing, the impli­ca­tions of the con­ver­sa­tion become increas­ing­ly clear—there are con­nec­tions between Aidan, Mag­gie, and oth­ers that nei­ther Frank nor Vicky ful­ly under­stand. Frank watch­es Vicky’s face, not­ing the way her expres­sion shifts between dis­be­lief and unease. She demands to know how deep this sit­u­a­tion runs and what exact­ly Mag­gie has got­ten her­self involved in. Frank exhales slow­ly, his mind rac­ing as he tries to find the right words. He explains that what they are hear­ing is just the tip of the ice­berg, that the deep­er they dig, the more tan­gled and unset­tling the truth becomes. Vicky press­es for details, her patience wear­ing thin as she sens­es the weight of Frank’s hes­i­ta­tion.

The ten­sion in the room thick­ens, each pass­ing sec­ond stretch­ing into some­thing heavy and uncer­tain. Frank runs a hand through his hair, strug­gling with the enor­mi­ty of what he’s about to reveal. He knows that once he starts explain­ing, there will be no turn­ing back. Vicky cross­es her arms, her stance rigid, wait­ing for him to speak. He final­ly promis­es to tell her every­thing, but only if she agrees to help him piece togeth­er the full sto­ry. The air between them is charged, filled with unspo­ken ques­tions and the real­iza­tion that they are stand­ing at the edge of some­thing far more com­plex than either of them had antic­i­pat­ed. The chap­ter ends with a sense of mount­ing antic­i­pa­tion, leav­ing both Frank and Vicky star­ing at the screen, know­ing that the truth, once uncov­ered, will change every­thing. The record­ings have set some­thing irre­versible into motion, and the choic­es they make mov­ing for­ward will deter­mine how deep they fall into the tan­gled web of secrets that have just begun to sur­face.